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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 58–60; Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 208–209 [in part; 1 paragraph].
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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On Sunday morning then I shall gladly expect you to breakfast. as for the horse, twill but be an inconvenience. 14s a week is the expence — so says Burnett. but he may <as> well stand in the stable at Brixton as at Oxford.
I think Wynns objection is a very strong one. my opinions are very well known. I would have them so. Nature never meant me for a negative character. I can neither be good or bad — happy or miserable by halves. you know me to be neither captious or quarrelsome — yet I doubt myself whether the quiet harmless situation I hoped were proper for me. it certainly by imposing a prudential silence would have sullied my integrity. I think I see you smile & your imagination turns to a strait waistcoat & Moorfields. aussi bien
Some think him wonderous wise & some believe him mad.
My brother has been ill treated by his new Captain.
John Seward has long left London. he is now at home in Worcestershire. Coleridge & Allen you will be much pleased with. Wynn quits us this day week.
what do you mean by “farewell till I see you & then too”? I am ill fitted for writing. my mind is harrassed by continual anxiety. my brothers situation distresses me much. however tis but visiting America at last. & tho quitting this country would rend the heart strings — like tooth drawing twould be a violent & certain remedy.
I am sitting by the fire. how do the Brixton wasps?
for Gods sake make Harry any thing but an engineer. I do most heartily abhor any trade relative to man butchery. he is apt for any thing. during Michaelmas Term I think not of residing. tis my wish if possible never to reside again. but I am doomed to take orders & little less than a miracle can rescue me.
you know not how I delighted in the prospect of living so much with you & seeing every thing promise so fairly for happiness.
but I must take my own advice to my brothers Muir Palmer &c
You will like the poetry better than the sentiments. but the man who wrote & felt those lines must never be guilty of silence.